I can be whatever I want to be.
Oh Dollhouse, did you really have to go there?
Ramblings pertaining to the portrayal of disability below the cut. Spoilers for episodes 2x05 and 2x06. Some acting props and a tip of the hat to gender portrayal at the end.
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Ramblings pertaining to the portrayal of disability below the cut. Spoilers for episodes 2x05 and 2x06. Some acting props and a tip of the hat to gender portrayal at the end.
( Read more... )
Getting left behind was absolutely a large part of the reason she was so bitter. I wasn't trying to erase that and I'm sorry if it came across that way. That being said, there were other ways to tell that story. Why have the camera linger on Bennett's arm if it wasn't meant to be important? (I'd be really curious to see if that was scripted or directorial choice.) Why not actually make Echo/Caroline feel all of that panic and fear and helplessness and betrayal? It would have been just as effective a challenge for her to overcome later. (Though potentially carrying other squicky disability issues - people should just snap out of depression and other mental illness, it's that easy, yeah? - I don't know if they could have won on this one.)
As for your "It's all in her head" argument, Dollhouse has shown us repeatedly that they're not just tricking the brain into doing what they want; they're actually changing brain chemistry, from curing 'mental illness' (Sierra) to embedding incredibly strong maternal instincts (Echo). The brain can be the malfunctioning part of the nervous system just as the surely as the nerves.
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Ratings? I'd say because it caused more viewer curiosity ("how'd that happen?") than a spazzed out "DON'T LEAVE ME" girl, which would have looked seriously pathetic in comparison. Especially because Bennett wanted the other lady to leave in the first place so she could do evil things to Echo. It would've been VERY hard to do convincingly. Which yes, is an easy way out, and I'm not excusing it. I'm just explaining one of the reasons it could've been done that way. Besides, we saw the "DON'T LEAVE ME" part in flashback at least 3 times, I think, so even that part was shown often. I bet someone with PTSD would be ticked off at the way that was portrayed too, like that Echo didn't get it at all because "it's not real, it doesn't exist, they're faking or lazy or...." or something.
Also we don't really know that Echo didn't feel all those things. She was rather panicked at the beginning and not that Eliza is a bad actress, but I'm not sure she would've been able to convey the actual panic part convincingly for an extended period of time. And how do you show, on screen, in less than 5 seconds, that someone is no longer being controlled by a debilitating fear of getting left behind? The guy was trying to kill her, I think anybody would be like "okay, bye now!" by that point. If they wanted her to break off on her own like she did at the end of the episode, she has no choice but to be able to be on her own. No choice.
Though it would've been nice for her to get out of the almost-getting-killed-by-dude predicament WITH the dead arm. You don't need to have a fully functional everything in order to survive.
Dollhouse has shown us repeatedly that they're not just tricking the brain into doing what they want
That's true too.
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Awesome. So we can interpret it as an acceptable way of gawking at the disabled? (Since she's fictional all, it won't hurt her.)
I understand the reasons behind it. That doesn't make it okay. I think that it's lazy storytelling and a hurtful stereotype; not all people with disabilities are pining after normal. It also implies that the loss of use to her arm is a terrible, terrible tragedy and that's not okay either.
Overcoming emotional trauma is equally problematic. It's not a well-thought out premise. I'm not sure that there is a better solution here, given that the show would be tossing it in the face of one group or another. Man, I love self-determination, but it's so close to bootstraps sometimes, and that's a terrible mind-set to adopt.
Her getting out of the predicament with only one arm would have been awesome! Maybe that would have been the best way to deal with the situation, though it doesn't erase the problems with Bennett herself and also stands the potential of falling into the super crip category if handled poorly.
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